When comparing TCL S405 49" (49S405) vs VIZIO M-Series 75" (M75-E1), the Slant community recommends VIZIO M-Series 75" (M75-E1) for most people. In the question“What are the best TVs?”VIZIO M-Series 75" (M75-E1) is ranked 111st while TCL S405 49" (49S405) is ranked 172nd. The most important reason people chose VIZIO M-Series 75" (M75-E1) is:

The 2017's VIZIO M-Series is a fair option for those who like to watch TV in a dark room because of the good blacks it can reproduce and its reasonable native contrast ratio.
Regarding its black uniformity, this TV performs on par with the best TVs in its price range.
The TV's native contrast ratio of 5606:1 is higher than what the majority of equally-priced competitors offer, allowing it to pack bright highlights as well as some inky, dark spots into a single image.

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Specs

Size49"

Size75"

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Pros

Pro

Excellent value for money

The S405 strikes a nice balance between picture quality, screen size, and input lag, all for an affordable price of below $500. It's a great choice for watching and gaming casually without breaking the bank.

Compared to its direct competitors, it offers decent picture quality that is a tad below them, bigger screen size, and lower input lag.

Content looks decent enough for most casual viewers - the black levels are sufficiently deep, colors are vivid, and it gets bright enough for most types of content in a dark room.

The size difference is pretty huge as options with similar size of 49", or even smaller, cost fairly more than the S405.

Its low input lag of ~15ms contributes to a more responsive gaming experience. It's barely noticeable, and it’s also one of the lowest among 4K TVs, which is an impressive feat in this price bracket.

Pro

Works well as a computer monitor

The S405 works well as a computer monitor thanks to its low input lag, barely noticeable motion blur, and full 4:4:4 color support. The 43" model can even be used up close due to its small minimal viewing distance.

The low input lag and low motion blur of ~15ms makes it highly responsive to input and gives it the ability to handle dynamic content well.

It also has full 4:4:4 color support, so text or shapes with hard edges on the screen won't be blurry.

Pro

Decent for watching sports

The S405 is a good pick for watching sports thanks to its low motion blur and reasonably consistent color uniformity.

Fast-moving objects, like footballs, won't leave any visible trails on the screen due to the low motion blur of ~15ms. While there are slight uniformity inconsistencies in the edges of the panel when displaying large, uniform objects on the screen, like football fields, the issues generally go unnoticed by most.

Pro

Intuitive and smooth user interface

The S405 runs on the Roku TV smart platform, touted for its simple, straightforward, and lag-free UI.

It’s easy for anyone to grasp how navigation works, thanks to its two-column design with the menu on the left and options on the right.

There’s also no noticeable lag during navigation or menu selection.

Pro

Excellent for gaming

The S405 is excellent for gaming - the overall experience will be very responsive and fluid, thanks to the really low input lag and barely noticeable motion blur.

It has an input lag of ~15ms that makes the TV highly responsive to user input - gamers will have no issues keeping their actions in sync with what's on the display. The panel can fully change its pixels color in under 15ms, resulting in fast-moving objects not leaving any trails on the screen, eliminating virtually all motion blur.

It's also suitable for HDR gaming because there is no increased input lag for HDR, and it has full 4K support @ 60 FPS, which makes it suitable for all new 4K games.

Pro

Main interface has no ads

The S405 has no ads on its main interface, although there can be ads in third-party applications. Third-party ads can't be blocked, but the tracking and personalization can be limited through the TV's settings.

Pro

Colors are accurate even without calibration

The S405 is excellent at reproducing colors accurately out of the box.

Even without calibration, the colors are spot-on - they're very close to what the source signal demands and any inaccuracies are generally considered imperceptible to most end users.

The overall average difference between the source signal and the panel's reproduction of the color is measured in Delta-E, where lower means better accuracy. The S405 has a Delta-E of below 2.0, and anything below 3.0 is generally considered accurate for most end users.

Pro

Decent picture quality

It’s especially great at reproducing dark scenes thanks to the panel’s contrast ratio of about 4000:1, which means blacks can get really dark at about 4000 times darker than the brightest white it can produce.

Colors are spot-on even without calibration, and the panel can get bright enough with a peak brightness level of ~200 nits to make them pop in dark environments.

The best viewing experience will be in a dark environment where the panel won’t have to compete with light. The S405’s screen can’t really get bright enough to perform as well in bright environments.

Pro

Well-balanced side inputs

Even when the S405 is mounted on a wall, you'll still have access to all essential inputs and outputs which are situated on the side of the unit.

Pro

Highly versatile

The S405 is versatile enough to be used as a general-purpose display.

The picture quality is decent for movies and TV shows, and it checks all the boxes that make a TV suitable for gaming, sports, and as a computer monitor: low input lag, low motion blur, good screen uniformity, and full 4:4:4 color support.

Pro

Works well in a dark room

The 2017's VIZIO M-Series is a fair option for those who like to watch TV in a dark room because of the good blacks it can reproduce and its reasonable native contrast ratio.

Regarding its black uniformity, this TV performs on par with the best TVs in its price range.

The TV's native contrast ratio of 5606:1 is higher than what the majority of equally-priced competitors offer, allowing it to pack bright highlights as well as some inky, dark spots into a single image.

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Cons

Con

Can't fight glare very well

The S405 can deal with low amounts of light, such as sunlight through curtains, but it won't be able to deal with a significantly bright light.

Apart from being unable to get bright enough, its reflection handling is only average. The panel has a semi-gloss finish which helps in reducing reflections a little, but its peak brightness level of ~200 nits is not enough for fighting glare.

Con

HDR support is basic

The S405 can't reproduce HDR pictures very well because it lacks various important features.

HDR won't look much different from SDR due to the lack of wide color gamut and low peak brightness. It can't reproduce the full range of colors necessary for HDR, and the brightness level of only ~200 nits is barely enough for HDR content to stand out.

The black levels are also insufficient for highlights to stand out, and it won't be as dynamic as one would expect for HDR due to the lack of local dimming.

Con

Poor sound quality

The speakers on the S405 are too bassy, so distortion becomes a huge problem at high volumes. A relatively cheap speaker system or a soundbar will make a huge difference in sound quality.

Con

Remote lacks functionality

The S405 has a basic remote that is only capable of navigation, playback control, and volume control. It doesn't have fancy stuff like voice command found in remotes of other TVs.

Con

Lacks support for Dolby Vision

The S405 only supports the HDR10 format for HDR content.

Con

Not suitable for group watching

The S405 has a narrow viewing angle that makes it unsuitable for watching with groups.

People sitting away from the center of the screen will not experience the same picture as those sitting in the center because the picture quality starts to deteriorate significantly when viewing from just ≥30° away from the screen's center.

Con

Requires a TV box

You can't connect this TV directly to a cable or antenna because it lacks the built-in TV tuner so you'll need to spend extra money on a TV box.

Con

Poor value for money

A lot of competitors of the 2017's VIZIO M-Series do offer better performance without being noticeably pricier than it.

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